The electricity price brake will expire in 2024. A new concept is needed to avoid price explosions. Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck already has an idea of what this could look like.
Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) hopes that an industrial electricity price will be introduced by next spring. Then the electricity price brakes expired. “And in my opinion, then at the latest is the moment when you should start implementing such a concept,” said Habeck in Berlin.
The minister had already presented a concept at the beginning of May. In the long term, a “transformation electricity price” is planned. Industry should benefit from cheap electricity from renewable energies. Measures for this took time, it said in the corresponding paper. Therefore, in an interim phase until 2030, there should be a “bridging electricity price” of 6 cents per kilowatt hour for a “clearly defined” group of recipients, which must be financed from public funds.
The money is to come from the Economic Stabilization Fund. Habeck said he expects annual costs to average four billion euros, which will decrease over time. In the beginning it was maybe six billion euros, later two billion.
Habeck exchanged views on the topic with business, employer and trade union representatives. The President of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), Siegfried Russwurm, emphasized with regard to the “Bridge Electricity Price” that clarity is also needed about “what the bank looks like to which we now have to build bridges”. The faster expansion of renewable energies and storage is essential, as is the construction of hydrogen-capable gas-fired power plants with a significant capacity. But short-term measures are also needed. “Companies of all sizes, from medium-sized companies to large corporations, whose competitiveness and ability to survive are threatened by exorbitantly high electricity prices, need relief now.”
The first chairman of the IG Metall, Jörg Hofmann, described the concentration on the energy-intensive industry as correct. He warned of the disappearance of entire industries. Without the European steel industry, the innovative power of the automotive industry would not exist, and it is similar in mechanical engineering. “Public investments also require guarantees for employees to do a good job.” That means collectively agreed work at the previous locations.
Source: Stern
